Was Madagascar ever imperialized

Answer 1

From the European point of view - yes, by France. They started with a single settlement on the coast (called St. Mary), then probably worked round the coast making agreements with local leaders so they had some sort of claim to the whole island, then unified all their "holdings" into a single colony. Madagascar became independent again in the 1960s. I don't know if there was any Imperialism before the French arrived - Omani traders might have had settlements like the ones on Zanzibar, or perhaps the Portuguese in their early imperial period (16-17th centuries). Of course, there might have been locally-based empires!